Musings on Music, Tea, Gardening & my Paleo Life…

The Traveling Tea Box Has Arrived!

I love tea! My most favorite cups are rich, mouthy, malty, full-leaf bold black teas, but I also love Oolongs, especially of the roasted Wuyi type, & a variety of Puerhs. I also drink green & white teas, herbals, etc. Really I’ll try anything once. I’ve loved tea for a long, long time, & have a pretty ridiculous collection of teas. I try to drink a cup of each one of them once a month. I rarely succeed, but I enjoy trying. Today (Labor Day) marks a year since I stumbled upon Steepster.com. I love Steepster. It’s a 24 hour a day tea party. It’s my favorite online community. I know that I have one thing in common with everybody there: I love Tea!

The Here’s Hoping TTB. That’s a lot of Tea!

One of the best things about Steepster is the tea swaps I’ve been involved in. I’ve had some pretty awesome trades with tea drinkers from all over the world! It’s like having a pen pal, only even better! I’ve also been involved in a couple of Traveling Tea Boxes (TTB). This one, the “Here’s Hoping TTB” arrived on Friday, just in time for the 3 day weekend! It holds a total of 98 tea samples of varying sizes & varieties, from 59 companies

As if that wasn’t enough tea, the BBBB arrived on Saturday! That’s a smaller TTB that includes myself & 3 other friends. We wanted a TTB that was mostly black & puerh teas, especially from companies none of us had ever tried before. Each of us adds an oz of tea (or 2 half oz) to the box for each of the other 3 persons. When the box comes back to you, you get 3 ozs of tea, plus occasional extra surprises. We started the box a month ago, & it just came back to me! Here’s what I got:

My bag in the BBBB! It’s like a Birthday present!

What to drink with breakfast?Here’s what I got in this box:

Ying De Black No. 9 – Canton Tea Co

Rizhao Black – Ali Express

Antarctic Expedition – Silk Road

Queen of the Hill – Sloan

Cherry Pu’erh – Nature’s Leaf

Tiramisu Puerh – International House of Tea

Scottish Breakfast – Int. House of Tea

Good tea requires good food! For breakfast I made gluten free mixed berry crepes with coconut whipped cream & a drizzle of maple syrup, & home made breakfast sausage patties. Healthy decadence!

Breakfast!

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Professionally speaking, I play the Harp: Electric & Acoustic, Classical, Folk, Blues, Rock, Jazz, & Originals.
I also teach Harp in St. Louis.
When I'm not doing music related things, I sip tea, make awesome food (Paleo), & garden. That's is pretty much my life in a nutshell!

For coconut whipped cream, stick a can of coconut milk in the frig for a day or 2. When you’re ready to make it, open the can & separate the more solid part from the thinner liquid. You can use the liquid in a smoothie, or just drink it, or whatever.

Whip the thicker part with an electric mixer, adding a little vanilla & anything else you like: a little maple syrup or other sweetener, cinnamon, etc. Don’t whip it for too long, just long enough to be fluffy. Then you can stick it in the frig to firm up, where it will keep for a few days, if you can keep from eating it all right away!

Awww, too bad. You won’t be able to use the crepe recipe either, as it has coconut flour & oil in it. Here’s a crepe recipe made with almond flour. You can sub some other oil for the coconut oil. I haven’t tried it yet, so if you do, let me know how it turns out! :)